A U.S. nurse who cared for Saddam Hussein after his capture recalled a different side of the man than the usual brutal portrayal.

This Saddam — the deposed Iraqi leader who was executed before dawn Saturday for human rights crimes — wrote poetry, told of reading his children bedtime stories and fed birds crusts of bread saved from his meal.

Ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein looks out as he sits in court while listening to the prosecution during the 'Anfal' genocide trial in Baghdad, Iraq, earlier this month.
(Associated Press Photo/ Nikola Solic)

From January 2004 until August 2005, Master Sgt. Robert Ellis was the senior medical adviser at the compound near Baghdad where Saddam and other "high-value detainees" were jailed.

Ellis, 56, an operating room nurse, said he was ordered to do whatever was needed to keep Saddam alive.

"That was my job: to keep him alive and healthy, so they could kill him at a later date," he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper for Sunday's edition.

Ellis said Saddam was confined to a two-by-2.4-metre cell in solitary confinement at Camp Cropper. He had a cot and a small table where he kept some books and a Qur'an, two plastic chairs, a prayer rug and two wash basins.

An adjoining cell kept basic medical supplies, a defibrillator, intravenous solutions and oxygen.

Shared cigars

Ellis checked on Saddam twice a day and wrote a thorough "situation" report daily about Saddam's physical and emotional status.

Saddam told Ellis cigars and coffee kept his blood pressure down and it seemed to work. Saddam would insist Ellis smoke with him.

At one point, Saddam went on a hunger strike, refusing to eat when the guards would slide food through the slot on the bottom of his door. But when they changed tactics and opened the door, he started eating again.

"He refused to be fed like a lion," Ellis said.

When he was allowed short visits outside, Saddam would feed the birds crusts of bread saved from his meals. He also watered a dusty plot of weeds.

"He said he was a farmer when he was young and he never forgot where he came from," Ellis said.

'He had very good coping skills'

He said Saddam never gave him trouble and didn't complain much — and if he did, it was usually legitimate.

"He had very good coping skills," Ellis said.

Saddam shared with Ellis happier times, when his children were young: how he told them bedtime stories and how he would give his daughter half a Tums when she complained of a stomach ache.

When Ellis told Saddam he had to leave for the United States because his brother was dying, Saddam hugged him and said he would be his brother.

"I was there to help him, and he respected that," Ellis said.

Saddam never discussed dying and expressed no regrets about his rule.

"He said everything he did was for Iraq," Ellis said.

"One day, when I went to see him, he asked why we invaded. Well, he made gestures like shooting a machine-gun and asked why soldiers came and shot up the place."

"He said the laws in Iraq were fair and the weapons inspectors didn't find anything.

"I said: 'That's politics. We soldiers don't get caught up in that sort of thing.'"